[In a recent introduction to this new series, a series based on
short film reviews for films that deserve short reviews if not just a thumb’s
up or down I noted that Allan Jackson, the deposed previous site manager,
required his film reviewers to write endlessly about the film giving the
material an almost cinema studies academic journal take on it. That caused a
serious decline in the number of reviews over the years which I hope to make up
with a flurry of snap reviews for busy people. To see in full why check the
archives for November 28, 2018- Not Ready For Prime Time But Ready For
Some Freaking Kind Of Review Film Reviews To Keep The Writers Busy And Not
Plotting Cabals Against The Site Manager-Introduction To The New Series Greg
Green]
DVD Review
Take The Money And Run, Woody Allen, 1969
This is an early film of comedian /actor/director Woody Allen starring himself in the lead as Virgil Starkwell, a bungling wannabe bank robber whose hijinks land him in prisons, in bed with a lovely girl and the halls of academia as an expert on crime. In this film we can see the outlines of Woody’s seemingly endless love affair with early black and white crime and film noir classics. There is a little more use of sight gags here than in his later films but through it all Woody is still the funny bumbling New York Jewish kid that a long series of films will explore in greater detail. The use of an old time newsreel announcer to describe and set the framework of the film and detail the action is an interesting twist. Not the best Woody Allen film but a good look at the niche that he created for himself in American urban comedy/ social commentary cinema.
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